..my journey to a healthy weight & happy life.

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Monthly Archives: May 2014

hey guys! long time no talk! i’m 3 weeks post-op tomorrow and feeling great! i’ll give you a quick update, because i’m sure you don’t want to read over 3 weeks of details about my life.

so, surgery.. surgery went well thursday morning (may 8th). i’m not going to lie though, i was HURTING afterwords. i had read a lot about gas pains and discomfort from the gas they pump into you during surgery, but i didn’t have any of that. what i did have was some serious discomfort on my right side from my port. since they stitch your port (to fill the lap-band with saline) to your muscle wall, it can become pretty sore after surgery. getting in and out of bed and on and off the couch was excruciating the first 4 days. i also had a hiatal hernia repair, which could have contributed to the pain.

after a few days, i was feeling back to normal. i was thankful to have my sister there with me, even though i hate having people take care of me. as much as i want to get up and get myself every drink and protein shake, it was too unbearable, and she was there to help me out.

my post-op diet was full liquids once i left the hospital friday morning. while i was in the hospital, i sipped on little cups of water or broth, but wasn’t able to drink much at a time, because i was still pretty swollen from the surgery. my full liquid diet included 2 – 8oz protein shakes, i used protizyme peanut butter cookie (SO good), and 1 – 8oz creamy soup, mixed with protein. for the protein, instead of doing unflavored, i tried unjury chicken soup flavor and was pleasantly surprised! it had a really great flavor and didn’t get lumpy. i mixed it with both cream of chicken soup and golden mushroom. i stuck with the mushroom, because the cream of chicken hurt my stomach.

within the first week, i lost 7 lbs! i know, i was only drinking liquids, and had a very low calorie diet, but i was still excited with this loss. i had a one week follow-up appointment with my nurse practitioner and she was very happy with my results up until then. at that appointment she moved my diet from full liquid to stage 2 and 3 ‘mushy’ food. which is just easily chewed foods that aren’t dry. she recommended eggs, chicken/egg salad, steamed veggies, yogurt, and things like that, making sure i was still getting 60 g of protein in daily.

she also cleared me to exercise! well, not the fun kind of exercise, like lifting, she said i was allowed to swim and try out cardio. no heavy lifting or ab workouts. if you know me, you know i hate cardio, but i know i need to get active, so i’ve been in the gym every weekday for the last 2 weeks getting my sweat on. i started out with steady state elliptical and treadmill routines, but then tried some HIITs to change it up. i like HIITs a lot better because i don’t have time to watch the minutes drag by, i’m too busy changing the speed up.

here’s a comparison picture of the day of surgery and then 1 1/2 weeks later:

its not a huge transformation, but i was wearing the same outfit and wanted to see if there was difference. i can tell in my stomach area, some. also my work pants are fitting looser already, so its helping me remain positive.

as far as the band goes, i feel some restriction in the mornings, especially when i’m eating food, not drinking a shake, but as the day goes on, food doesn’t satisfy me as long. i’m trying to keep my portion around 1/2 to 3/4 cup, but sometimes, i’m hungry with an hour or two. i’ve heard some people refer to this as ‘bandster hell’ because you have the band inserted with no restriction, so you’re still doing all the work, eating very little, without feeling fuller longer. i’m determined to breeze right through this phase until my first fill in 3 more weeks.

all-in-all, everything is going REALLY good. i’m SO happy with my decision. this wasn’t an easy one for me to make. i was SURE i could do this on my own, but i just couldn’t make it work. i have my 3 week follow-up appointment tomorrow morning, so i’m hoping i will get moved to light lifting and a few less food restrictions.

and because i was feeling really good this morning, i took a picture to document my mood. 30 lbs down and feeling great!